Iron Empire
by Gigazubyte
Summary: Excerpts from a discontinued fic. Robotnik stages a massive coup, sparks fly as Sonic and Co. attempt to take back their world. The selections presented here are practically nonstop action.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one.

_Hmm…_ thought Rouge the Bat as she dropped almost noiselessly from a ventilation duct to the hall below, _Nice to see the Doctor hasn't changed too much in the last two years. Security's tighter, but not tight enough. After all, he isn't the only one who's upgraded his technology._ She would have chuckled as she fingered the compact hacking device in her palm, but sound carried unnaturally far in these metallic corridors. That could be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on how one looked at it. Right now it was helping her evade Robotnik's patrolling robots. Her sensitive ears picked up the clanging footsteps long before the drones came into sight.

She shrank back into what little shadows the harsh lighting afforded as two robots came around a bend in the hall, marching in lockstep, looking straight ahead. Their search routine seemed more perfunctory than anything else. But then, Robotnik had little reason to expect enemies to infiltrate his base. His adversaries were by and large much more likely to simply kick in the door and come rushing in after him. She shook her head ever so slightly to clear out the distracting thoughts of Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles that rose up. When had she last seen them? Not lately, certainly, since she'd been overseas on "business" for the last few months.

_Hmph, I no sooner get back and they want me to go see what Robotnik is up to. I don't even get time for a vacation. Not that I spent every second of my last mission on the job. Still, it's enough to make a girl reconsider her line of work. Oh, who am I kidding? I live for this._

Rouge studied the robots as they clanged out of sight. These were of a type she had not previously encountered. They were humanoid, and reminded her somewhat of Emerl, but with a sleeker design. They were clearly meant to be peak performance killers. The only gaudiness they featured was a bright red R emblazoned on the left side of their chest plates, a distinct departure from the egomaniacal design of the egg pawns. Rouge missed those rotund little robots. They were sort of cute, but far more importantly they were easy to dispatch, something, she got the distinct feeling, that the robots that had passed her were not.

So far Rouge had encountered half a dozen new types of Robotnik robots, as well as several old ones. Most of the new ones had a vague humanoid shape but they ranged in size from ones her height to ones that would have towered over even the G.U.N. commander. Apparently Robotnik had decommissioned the egg pawn line entirely, because she saw very few of them. On the other hand, there were several variations of the E series present, including many with a strong resemblance to Omega. Some had clearly come out of retirement, but many more seemed freshly made, which was interesting. It meant Robotnik was recycling –and possibly updating- one of his more dangerous lines.

Once the marching pair was well out of sight she hurried from her hiding place toward the next part of ductwork. Unfortunately, her map of the base was largely incomplete and she would have to play it by ear from this point forward. She rounded the corner and froze dead in her tracks. In front of her was a huge black and white robot. It looked like an E series robot with the lower body of a wasp instead of legs. Like some grotesque insect it hovered whisper silent in the air. Luckily, it faced in the opposite direction. With a tiny squeak Rouge turned and scurried backwards as fast as she could, hoping the robot would not turn around and notice her. She managed to get behind a stack of metal crates just as the robot spun around. Evidently it sensed something was amiss because it stayed in one place while its single green eye roved back and forth, searching for something. Rouge pressed back hard into the corner, trying to make herself as small and invisible as possible, her heart hammering in her chest. The laser targeting system swept the shadows a few inches above her head. Finally, satisfied that there was nothing to be detected, the robot moved on.

Rouge waited for a few minutes before moving on, both to make sure that the robot was gone and to give her pounding heart time to calm down. It wasn't the first close call she had had today, but it was the worst. This had been a robot, and a dangerous looking one, whereas the previous encounters had mostly involved split second timing with security cameras. In fact, she traveled only a few more yards before discovering yet another of these. Normally she would have simply climbed the wall above it, but these metal corridors afforded no purchase. Instead, she noted that the movement of the camera, judging that its back and forth movement afforded her time to slip into the blind spot directly beneath it.

As the camera pointed away from her intended path, Rouge dove and rolled, coming up hard against the wall. She flattened herself against it and waited for a few breathless seconds. When no alarms went off, she dashed down the hall, careful to stay close to the wall and out of the camera's line of vision. Before rounding the next corner she stopped to let another pair of Gizoid-esque robots go by, remaining as quiet as the shadows she had melded into until the clanking sound that had announced their passing receded in the distance.

At the end of this hallway she found what she was looking for, another duct. After a few quick movements to loosen the screws she lifted off the grate and climbed in, pulling it closed behind her as tightly as possible. It would not stand up to close inspection, but she would be long gone before anyone thought to inspect the grates.

Inside the grate the distasteful metallic smell of the base was intensified. This was not one of Robotnik's more hospitable hideouts. Rouge suspected his personal quarters would be opulently furnished, but the areas she had been through so far were all metal and unforgiving fluorescent lighting. It was enough to make one wonder if the doctor was not a robot himself. That notion was dispelled as the heat came on. A robot would have had no need for that. It wasn't hot enough to cause burns, but it made the duct distinctly uncomfortable. Sweat trickled down Rouge's back between her shoulder blades as she made her way along.

Finally she came to a grate where the lighting coming through the grates was different. It was more bluish, as opposed to the harsh white of the corridors. Peering cautiously out, Rouge saw that it was a computer room, unguarded except for a single robot drone. With infinite caution, Rouge removed the grate and slipped out behind the robot, which was thankfully facing the door. She disabled it with a single swift kick before it could raise an alarm, and with a few quick keystrokes logged in to Robotnik's computer files and began downloading onto a portable hard drive. As she scanned the most recent additions her eyes widened in horror. This was huge. She had to tell the president ASAP.

Without warning an alarm went off, startling Rouge so badly that she jumped. The lights turned red, and a mechanical voice blared "INTRUDER! INTRUDER! INT-"

Rouge glanced at the progress. Only 62 complete. She heard clanging footsteps coming closer and realized she was going to have to leave without copying all the files she wanted. She unplugged the hard drive, ignoring the abort transfer warning, and sprinted out of the room. "Damn, this is bad." She said to nobody in particular as she fled.


	2. Chapter 2

As Sonic sped toward Station Square with Rouge in his arms, the sky clouded over and a light drizzle began falling. Rouge was silent for the first minute or two, but she was unnaturally tense and her expression was very uneasy. When she spoke, it was not at all the thank you Sonic had been expecting.

"Hurry, can't you go any faster?"

"Hey, I'm already booking. It's a long run to Station Square. We'll be there in just a few more minutes. What's the big rush anyway?"

"We've got company, that's what. Look out!"

Sonic jumped out of the way of a hail of fire, hit the ground, rolled, and came up running without breaking stride or dropping Rouge. He increased his pace as a trio of flying bots came level with him, guns blazing. As fast as he was going, they managed to keep up. He could go faster, but it was dangerous with Rouge in his arms. It was, however, more dangerous to be a sitting duck. He sped up just in time to avoid another burst of fire, then started weaving side to side as he ran, dodging shots.

"Geez, these guys sure are persistent. What did you steal from Robotnik this time?"

"Just some data. I downloaded several files from the doctor's mainframe. I had to leave before I could get everything, but this outlines at least part of his latest plan."

"Which is?" asked Sonic. He hoped she would just get to the point already. Obviously something bad was going on, but he didn't have the patience to deal with this. Running full tilt to Station Square with robots hot on his tail was one thing. Doing it with Rouge in his arms was another. She wasn't all that heavy, but she threw his balance off.

"I don't know. I didn't get a chance to see all of it, but it involves an absolutely enormous armada of warships, with at least a dozen Egg Carrier sized flagships."

"So?" Sonic laughed. "We've dealt with those before. I crashed the first one he built, and I'll crash these too."

"It's more than just that. It wasn't so much the size of the ships that worried me; it was the resource reports, and the sheer number of new lines of robot production, and… other things. I don't know what exactly he's planning, but apparently he has an incredible reserve of resources that we had no prior knowledge of, and he's building some truly nasty war machines with it."

"So what were you doing out over the forest anyway?" Sonic asked. He didn't want to make light of Robotnik's threat when Rouge was obviously worried about it, but armies of robots and the Egg Carrier were nothing new, nothing he couldn't handle. If it took Robotnik two years just to come up with that, well, his respect for the would be world conqueror would be at an all time low.

"I was trying to lose Robotnik's thugs. They followed me out of his base and I couldn't shake them. I made it as far as the woods before they managed to shoot me down."

"How'd you survive the crash?"

"I didn't. I bailed before the plane reached the tree tops."

The robots pulled up and abandoned the chase as the gleaming skyscrapers of Station Square came into view. Sonic was always amazed at how quickly they rebuilt after suffering Chaos' rampage and then the invasion of the Black Arms scant months later, but he did not stop to admire the engineering feats. Instead he hurtled through the sprawling residential and commercial districts, scaring drivers and pedestrians and gathering an impressive trail of paper trash in his wake. Finally he arrived at the President's house. Though not as impressive as King Max's palace, (or was that King Elias' palace now?), it had a certain grandeur to it. Rouge went up to the large front doors and quickly tapped something in to a keypad set in the wall to the left of them.

"Yes?" came a distorted human voice. Definitely a live person at the controls rather than a recording, but the speaker wasn't particularly high quality and accompanied every syllable with a hiss of static. "Name and Business please."

"Rouge the Bat, and I need to see the president right now." Rouge said, now firmly in control of her voice and speaking with authority.

"The president is in a meeting with his cabinet. You'll have to schedule an appointment." Replied the voice. Sonic decided that it probably belonged to a woman.

"This is a matter of national security!" Rouge practically shouted into the speaker. "Dr. Robotnik is planning to invade Station Square!"

There was a slight pause, and then the voice replied "In that case the president will see you now."

"He'd better," Rouge muttered as she walked through the doors "If he wants to keep his job for any length of time."

The ensuing meeting took much longer than Sonic had expected and involved much less action. The G.U.N. commander and his top aides were called in to review the files Rouge had stolen, but rather than a quick response they spent hours mulling over individual statistics and brining in computer technicians to attempt to recover the data that had been corrupted when Rouge prematurely disconnected the hard drive. Tails arrived before long and offered what help he could, but the lost data was beyond even his superior computer knowledge. While Tails analyzed the data they did have and occasionally tried to restore the damaged portions, Sonic sat in his chair and politely tried to remain attentive.

When he realized he was not going to be asked to head an immediate attack, in spite of his strong support of that plan, Sonic quickly lost interest in the proceedings. He watched through the window as the rain stopped and then started up again, harder, thudding against the panes and the day gradually turned to afternoon and then evening. Perhaps he should just grab Tails and go stop Robotnik himself. This sitting around was boring and stupid. Planning and analyzing were not going to stop Robotnik's latest scheme, a good, speedy charge was.

He looked out the window, and then at the clock on the wall. It couldn't be right. More time had passed than that. It was already night. Then Sonic realized that the storm clouds overhead made everything darker than normal, and it really only was evening even though it looked like night outside. He groaned and closed his eyes, resting his head on the chair.

His attempt at sleep was interrupted by a blaring alarm and the noise of several ringing phones. He jerked upright and saw that a woman's face and shoulders had replaced the schematics and status reports on the video screen as the president received a video call.

"Mr. President sir, Robotnik has attacked Station Square. He has invaded the commercial district and appears to be targeting G.U.N. headquarters. Approximately half of G.U.N.'s mechanized defense force has gone rogue. It is believed that Robotnik managed to break the anti virus firewall on the older models and has reprogrammed them. He also has a massive robotic force of his own. Between his assault and the rogue units, G.U.N. is incapable of stopping him. Flying units are confirmed approaching the Whitehouse."

Sonic didn't wait to hear the president's response. This was a situation he knew how to handle. As he ran out of the room, Tails joined him.

"Tails, buddy, what'dya learn back there?"

"You mean you weren't paying attention?"

"Sorry, I kinda spaced out. Meetings aren't my thing."

Tails looked ready to chastise him, but instead he merely sighed and began explaining. "Robotnik has several new lines of Robots in production, and he's reactivated some old ones. Including the e-series."

"That's the one Gamma and Omega are from, right?"

"Yeah. Only now he's calling it the e-series MK II. There are some pretty heavy modifications and improvements to the old line. But more importantly, he's also making E-3, 4, and 5 thousands. E-3000s are the things we fought earlier. 4000s are just bigger, meaner versions. 5000s are even bigger than that, but they also have some other improvements."

"Good to know. Save the details for later. We've got company." As they exited the building, Sonic saw several of what he now knew to be E-3000s, as well as a myriad of other flying robots converging on the president's mansion. They didn't notice Sonic and Tails immediately in the heavy rain, but Sonic knew it was a matter of seconds before they spotted him and opened fire.

"Tails, can you go grab the Tornado and take care of the air battle? I'm going to head over to G.U.N. headquarters and teach Egghead's bots a thing or two."

"Way ahead of you," Tails yelled as he sped off in the direction of where he had parked the Tornado. As he did so the E-3000s noticed them and opened fire, but Sonic was ahead of them too. He dodged the rain of lasers and sped off down the road toward G.U.N.

If Robotnik had control of the G.U.N. robots, Sonic didn't want to see what they looked like uncontrolled. They seemed to be going berserk, shooting at him and each other, and sometimes at nothing in particular. Several times he saw the newer models, recognizable by their cleaner, more organic lines as opposed to the angularity of the types that had chased him through this city at the start of the ARK incident fighting their precedents. Even though word had reached the president just minutes ago, the robots had already caused substantial damage.

Cars lay overturned in the street, or riddled with holes on the side. Several appeared to have been ignited and suffered an explosion of the gas tank, and Sonic passed two that were still on fire. Similarly, the robots had caused a few propane tanks to explode, starting fires in the buildings. Luckily, the heavy rain meant the fires had little chance to spread or do more than superficial damage. Sonic paused only long enough to permanently decommission any G.U.N. robots he found causing damage. The maze of streets slowed his progress and forced him to confront rather more robots than he wanted to deal with. He intended to stop them, but it was faster to get Robotnik than to duke it out with each individual bot, and involved a lot less being shot at.

He took to the roofs, running up the side of a tall apartment complex. Leaping from roof to roof, using flagpoles and other protrusions to launch himself was much more direct and gave him a better sense of where he was going. Judging by the spread of the lasers, the brunt of Robotnik's force was more or less directly ahead of him. The battle sprawled throughout a huge sector of the city, Robotnik must have had an army of thousands, and he was almost certainly winning. A jagged lightning bolt lit up the sky and revealed huge numbers of swarming figures in the streets Sonic could see from his vantage point. He swallowed, becoming just a tad nervous at the sight. That was a lot of robots.

As he got closer to the main concentration, Sonic started running into groups of Robotnik's E-3000s patrolling the rooftops. They were much more of a pain to deal with than the G.U.N. robots, and after running into three squads he decided it was time to return to the street. He finished off the group that was attacking him and jumped off the building, destroying the last few that followed him down after he landed. Still, he knew this meant he was almost to G.U.N. and would soon be joining the main fray.

He hadn't gone but a few streets further before the road he was on dead ended in some sort of complex. Taller, partially completed buildings surrounded a cluster of shorter, squatter ones. In between those were a number of large storage trailers and piles of wooden and metal crates. Sonic was about to turn around and find another path when he noticed the red eyes some eight or nine feet off the ground. They belonged to a hulking robot. As lightning flashed again Sonic got a better look at the monstrosity. It was the same black, off white, and gray color pattern as the E-3000s and roughly the same build, but was at least two and a half times their size and had red trim on its chest plates. On one arm it bore a dark gray shield with a red R emblazoned on the center, and on the other it carried a massive double bladed weapon that resembled a pair of swords strapped to its arm.

"Bioform Identified. Surrender, SonictheHedgehog, or face termination."

"Thanks, big and ugly, but I'll pass. Now get outta the way, you bolt brain, or I'll scrap you same as your little brothers." Threatening the robot wasn't going to affect it in the least, but it made him feel better.

The robot sank to a crouch and sprang across the intervening distance with incredible swiftness. Sonic barely got out of the way of those nasty blades in time. They repeated this slash and doge maneuver twice more before Sonic saw his chance to counterattack. He aimed a spin attack at the robot's head. Instantly it brought up its shield. Sonic bounced off as though he had been a thrown rock, barely even scratching it. He hit the ground and rolled sideways, narrowly avoiding a stab of the giant blades. A second attempt yielded nearly the same results, except he came even closer to being skewered.

Sonic spent the next several seconds just trying to avoid being cut in two as he looked for an opportunity to counterattack. Finally he saw it. He jumped on a crate, and as the robot charged him he jumped over the slashing blade and homing attacked it in the faceplate. It reeled back, stunned, sparks emitting from the cracked visor. Sonic didn't think it was possible, but the robot sped up. He managed to hit it again, this time in the chest plate. Now the robot was swinging its blades in such a way that hitting it a third time became nearly impossible. Then it started shooting.

Besides being sharp enough to cut, the blades apparently routed energy from the contraption on the robot's back between them to form some sort of gun. Sonic noticed that it had to stop and charge after every salvo of shots, though. It seemed the pack only generated enough energy for six quick shots at a time, although it could fire slow ones indefinitely. When the robot paused to charge again, Sonic ran straight at the gun pointed in his face, jumped over the shot it fired at him ground along the length of the blade, feeling the heat of it through the soles of his shoes, and hit the robot full in the face. This time the head came completely off and the robot slumped to the ground, defeated.

"Woo, piece of cake!" Sonic shouted triumphantly.

"Bioform identified." Came a chorus of robotic voices. "SonictheHedgehog, surrender or face termination." Sonic looked around. While he had been fighting, at least half a dozen robots like the one he had just fought had surrounded him. For the first time in more than two years he felt just a bit nervous as they closed in on him. There were more than six. There had to be at least eight, maybe ten. Even his speed might not be enough against these things. It was going to be a tough fight in any event. Good, he liked a challenge.

Sonic flashed a grin that was lost in the pouring dark and charged the nearest one. As he did a hail of golden spears erupted from somewhere behind him and impacted two of the robots, blasting vital circutry to smithereens. So Shadow was here. That would make things easier. Sonic jumped on one robots head and backflipped into the air as two of the others charged him from opposite directions. They slashed the one he had jumped from in two. He homing attacked another in the faceplate even as he saw a black blur tear into the remaining robots. Sonic sliced the head off a final robot and landed on the ground, smirking at the sparking heaps of metal that littered the ground, and at the other hedgehog as he finished with his last opponent.

"Hey, Shadow, good to see you. Great timing too, I owe ya one."


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: I wrote the airship battle while listening to a looped metal remix of Emerald Hill. I recommend attempting to locate one for the reading of this chapter. Everything sounds better set to Emerald Hill.

Knuckles awoke to the sound of a blaring alarm. True to his fighter's instincts he rolled out of bed and into a defensive stance in one fluid motion, eyes sweeping the room in search of the source of the disturbance. His soulmate Julie-Su rolled out of the other side of the bed, grabbing her gun as she did. She came up pointing at the door to the bedroom. Belatedly he realized it was not his personal alarm that was going off, but rather the city wide emergency alert system.

"Hold on," he said to Julie-Su "That's the city's emergency alert, not the cave's"

"It doesn't help that they sound exactly the same," she said, lowering her weapon "but at least we aren't likely to be attacked by knife wielding assassins in the next five seconds."

"Yeah, but it also means whatever caused it is enough of a threat for Constable Remington to wake the entire city in the middle of the night."

Knuckles' computer screen illuminated, displaying the icon that meant someone was requesting a video call. He punched the accept key. As he expected, the face of Constable Remington, chief of the Echidnapolis defense force, appeared on the screen. The Constable appeared to have been roused quickly from his sleep, as had Knuckles. His dark hair was ruffled and the hat he always wore was slightly askew on his head. Knuckles was the first to speak.

"Remington, what's going on? Why did you sound the alarm?"

"Look outside and see for yourself, Guardian. Angel Island is under attack. Doctor Robotnik's armada has us surrounded. Sonic and Tails just called. They alerted us to the attack and they're on their way to help. I want you and Julie-Su to go protect the Master Emerald. I'll send the Chaotix to back you up."

"What about Echidnapolis and my family?"

"We'll erect the shields and try to force him back with the defensive armaments. I can't promise we'll win against that fleet, but we'll do the best we can and hope help arrives in time. You'll be more useful protecting the Emerald. Shields won't matter any if he steals that and the island falls."

"Right. I'm on my way."

The explosive bombardment began as Knuckles and Julie-Su exited his cave. Looking up into the sky he saw a sight that turned his blood to ice. The outlines and running lights of an immense fleet were visible in the distance above the city. Knuckles increased his pace as he headed in the direction of the Master Emerald Shrine. With any luck, Robotnik would only be trying to steal it, which would make defending it relatively easy as he would shy away from using excessive force against anyone nearby for fear of shattering it. The Master Emerald was uniquely prone to shattering, unlike normal Chaos Emeralds which were virtually indestructible. This was both a blessing and a curse. Robotnik couldn't use it in pieces, but neither could Knuckles. Knuckles always had the option of restoring it later, but if Robotnik was bent on the total destruction of Angel Island he might simply carpet bomb the shrine and then there wouldn't be a later. With that thought in mind Knuckles broke into a full out run.

As much as Sonic loved the Tornado, and as fast as it was, at the moment he really wanted to curse it for being too slow. Fast as it was, there was no way it could match his top speed, and right now speed was the most important thing of all. The faster they got to Echidnapolis and dealt with Robotnik's impending attack, the faster they could get back to New Mobotropolis and make sure it was still standing. Unfortunately, Tails' on board computer told them that Angel Island was far out over the ocean, and thus there was no way Sonic could have reached it on foot regardless of how fast he ran.

"Hey, Tails, can this thing go any faster?" he asked, not for the first time, "I don't want to be late for the party or Rad Red will have trashed all the good bots before we get there."

"Maybe," Tails replied, giving the same explanation he had before, "but I really don't want to push the engine any further into overdrive. It might stall out. We'll be there in just a few more minutes anyway, and I highly doubt Knuckles will have wrecked the entire fleet by himself."

"How big can it be? It looked like Robuttnik had most of his ships at New Mobotropolis, and he was busy with Station Square too."

"I don't know, and that's what worries me. Robotnik always had impossibly large armies and bases, but he had a huge fleet at Station Square and the one at New Mobotropolis was the biggest I've ever seen. Where is Robotnik getting the resources to attack all three cities at once? For that matter, how did he mobilize all those ships to strike in three places so far removed from each other without anybody knowing until they were right on top of us? It just doesn't make sense."

"I dunno, but I think it's time to stop guessing how they got there and start taking 'em out! Look!"

A dark smudge had appeared on the horizon, lit from behind by a red sliver of sun just peeking above the ocean's rim. Though they had left New Mobotropolis in the middle of the night less than an hour ago, dawn was just breaking in this part of the world. The light refreshed Sonic, even though it meant he would likely be going without sleep for longer than was healthy. As they approached the distinct jagged outline of Angel Island became recognizable, its prominent mountains and ragged underbelly coming into sharper focus.

At first glance the island appeared untouched, but as they drew closer a haze of smoke became visible, as did an armada of battle ships every bit the equal of the one bombarding New Mobotropolis. Individual outlines of the larger battle cruisers began to stand out, flashing as the occasional beam of sunlight penetrated the smoke to hit the polished metal sides of the warships. Soon they could both see and hear the explosions as the ships bombarded Echidnapolis, which was mercifully still standing under the assault and apparently fighting back, though for how much longer Sonic did not know.

Sonic's heart sank and his mouth dropped open as the full immensity of the fleet hit him. It was impossibly numerous, especially given that there was one of equal size at New Mobotropolis. Where was Robotnik getting the material for all these ships?

"Sonic," Tails squeaked, his voice breaking as he took in the size of Robotnik's force "What are we going to do? There's too many of them to fight."

"I have an idea. We're going to destroy those three ships," he said, pointing at three of the largest ones, clustered in close formation as they bombarded Echidnapolis "and punch through. You keep the smaller fighters around them distracted while I hop on and destroy the engines from inside. Then you go tell them to use the Hyper Zone Projector while I go find Knux and the Master Emerald and lend him a hand. You know what I'm talking about, right?"

"Yeah. That's a good plan," Tails said, angling the Tornado towards the indicated ships. By now they were close enough that their approach had been noticed, and several of the smaller ships broke off to engage them. The response was too late. Tails was an expert pilot and the targeting system in the Tornado had been designed to be able to track Sonic. Tails swerved out of the interceptors' lines of fire, dodging and rolling, and picked them off with quick, precise bursts while Sonic held on for dear life. A few ingenious movements and they were out of the firefight and in the midst of the ships.

Tails pulled up alongside the closest of the three ships and Sonic jumped off the Tornado, on the move before he even touched the deck. Meanwhile Tails veered off to engage another cluster of small ships before they could target Sonic, mowing them down with expert precision.

Sonic quickly smashed the gun turrets as they targeted him, ricocheting from one to another like a pinball, destroying each in turn with his homing attack. Next he concentrated on the robots swarming him. Their reaction time was better than usual, and he had barely cleared the turrets before they were on him. A quick series of break-dance inspired kicks bought him enough breathing room to homing attack the remainder, using the charging robots as stepping stools to hit the hovering ones.

From there he ground up a supply rail to the upper deck, where he was greeted by an E-2000. He dodged the lasers it fired and homing attacked its weak points until the robot crumpled on the deck. Then he entered the door it had been guarding. He made his way below decks, stopping to smash any robots that engaged him in the cramped halls and anything that resembled an important valve or control panel until he heard the warning siren blare, then evacuated to the top deck.

He tried to signal Tails, but his friend appeared to be occupied in a dogfight, so he demolished the robots charging him, took a running start, jumped on a rail, and used it to launch himself in a tremendous leap of faith on to one of the smaller ships below and in front. As he landed, just making the edge of the deck, an explosion rocked the one he had just vacated and it started to lose altitude. As he watched it crashed down on a pair of smaller ships beneath it before exploding in a fire ball that demolished many of the small ships around it and knocked Sonic off his feet.

Fortunately, it also unbalanced the robots behind him that had been about to take advantage of his distraction, and one of them went plummeting off the deck to the ocean below. Sonic was first to his feet, destroying the other robots before they could rise. He proceeded to wreck this ship too, and, using rails to jump from ship to ship, proceeded to leapfrog across a series of small ones, destroying each as he went until he could gain enough altitude to launch himself to the next big ship. There were two E-2000s guarding the door on this one, but Sonic defeated them just the same and ran inside.

By the time he was finished with that one this section of the fleet was in disarray and Tails had managed to disengage from his opponents. Sonic hopped on the Tornado as the fatal chain reaction began and they flew clear of the ensuing explosion. Together they reached the third ship. Sonic destroyed the robots on deck, ran inside, and made short work of the control consoles.

This left the Tornado much closer to Angel Island as well as a substantial hole in the armada where the three ships had exploded and taken their smaller support fighters with them. Now only a few small ships stood between Sonic and the island's edge. He turned to Tails

"Looks like we made it okay. Just gotta scrap these guys and we're practically there."

"Yeah! We did it!" Tails exclaimed exuberantly

"Not so fast, rodents," said an unnervingly accurate mechanical imitation of Robotnik's voice. "You'll have to get through me first."

"We'll do that just as soon as you show yourself!" Sonic yelled at thin air, looking around for the owner of the voice. "Come out and fight, ya coward!"

"But Sonic," said the voice "I'm right here above you!"

Sonic looked up just in time to see the brilliant golden beams coming. Luckily, Tails was a little quicker on the uptake and had begun evasive maneuvers as soon as he realized the enemy was not readily visible. He rolled to the left and the attacks missed them by inches. Sonic nearly lost his grip and went plummeting to the ocean.

For the first time Sonic got a good look at the robot. It reminded him somewhat of the Egg Emperor, only much more lethal looking. Where the emperor had been a bulky ungainly thing, this was trim and looked very nimble. It was around the same size, maybe a little bigger. It was colored in the usual Robotnik red and black, and the only signs of vanity it bore were a stylized representation of Robotnik's trademark mustache and a weird v over the faceplate that looked like eyebrows. It spoke again "Hahahaha! You pitiful fools! I applaud your courage, but it will lead to your deaths. Did you really think you could defeat me?"

"Yeah, actually," Sonic shot back, "Keep talking big Doc, we'll see who has the last laugh."

Tails fired at it, but the robot merely raised an arm and deflected the shot with some sort of multihued energy shield. Then it returned fire from its arm cannons. Tails avoided this, but that seemed to be all he could do. The Tornado lacked the firepower to penetrate that shield, no matter how many times Tails fired on it. Switching tactics, he tried to race past the robot and land, but it kept itself positioned squarely between them and the island, chasing them off with more energy shots.

This game of cat and mouse continued at some length, but the robot was simply too good to get past. It was winning, beating Tails at his own game. Each time the shots came closer to hitting them, and Tails had to pull more elaborate rolls to avoid them. Finally, one struck the tip of an x shaped wing, which began sparking.

"Sonic, it's no good. I can't seem to do more than superficial damage and I can't outrun it."

Sonic wasn't prepared to give up and die. "Charge him. I'll jump off and homing attack it."

"What if you miss?" Tails asked, frantically jerking the controls as the robot powered up another shot.

"Well we can't just keep doing this. We're sitting ducks here."

Tails suddenly broke and veered right at the robot, under the angle of its blast. Sonic leapt off at the last second as Tails passed beneath it and struck. He hit hard, and bounced off. As he fell Tails reversed course and got beneath him. Sonic landed on both feet.

"Did it work?" he asked, looking up at the robot. It appeared largely undamaged; all he had done was dent the chest plate a little.

"Hahahaha, your pitiful attempts amuse me so. Try again, rodent, maybe you'll have better luck this time. Too bad you won't get the chance to find out! It's been fun toying with you, but I'm afraid it is time for our game, and your life, to come to an end. Say goodbye, Sonic"

With that he began firing again. Tails jerked the controls around, rolling madly to dodge the shots. One impacted the second wing, blowing off some of the paneling. The exposed and blackened circuitry crackled feebly, and the Tornado began to list to one side.

"Nowhere for you to run, nowhere for you to hide. You won't be dodging this next shot." Robotnik said, charging up another blast. Sonic knew he was going to charge it to full strength for the fatal blow, but that only bought them scant seconds more before Robotnik fired.

"Tails! Can you get us out of the way?"

"I don't think so. I'll try to avoid it but the Tornado isn't responding," he said, wrestling with the uncooperative controls. "I don't think I can move us to either side fast enough to dodge once he fires. We're toast."

"Then we'll have to jump and hope for the best."

"But you can't swim!"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Actually," said Tails "I think I do. When I say now, jump!" With that he pressed a red button and pushed the throttle all the way forward. The Tornado shot towards Robotnik like a bullet, engine screaming in protest.

"NOW!" Tails shouted above the noise, and he and Sonic leapt from the Tornado as Robotnik fired. The blast bew the wings off, but the main body of the plane, now wreathed in flame, collided with the robot.

It was a direct hit, dead center of the torso. Upon impact the engine of the Tornado erupted in a giant fire ball, engulfing the robot as well as the remains of the plane. Charred, broken remnants of robot and plane fell to the ocean below with a pitiful splash.

"That was awesome!" Sonic yelled as Tails caught him in midair, his namesake appendages whirring above his head. "Way to go, Tails! That rocked!"

"Yeah, but we lost the Tornado."

"You've got other ones back in the lab, right?"

"Well yeah, but that doesn't mean I don't hate losing it. Do you think we got him?"

"Nah," Sonic replied, "I'd bet my sneakers Buttnik wasn't actually in that bot. He's harder to kill than that."


	4. Chapter 4

Knuckles and Julie-Su sped into the Chaos Emerald shrine, nearly sliding on the smooth paved stone as they came to a halt. They hadn't encountered any robots yet, but that didn't mean that there wouldn't be some coming soon. Their eyes darting back and forth as the two echidnas waited and watched for any sign of attack. The silence stretched on, until Knuckles almost wanted to see some robots.

Suddenly, Knuckles unspoken wish was granted. A horde of robots pressed in from all sides. Most of them were simple grunts, although they were all more deadly looking than the egg pawns that Robotnik had been building before. Knuckles noticed most easily that they were a good head taller than he was, their weapons were a part of them and not separate and easily droppable, and they displayed absolutely no emotion. Oh, and there were a lot of them.

Knuckles leaned over to Julie-Su, gave her a quick kiss, and charged the oncoming robots. His first brutal right hook flung one bot backwards, knocking down four of its fellows. And a swing of his left crumpled the torso of another. Knuckles was more than just his fists though. He was the next one in a long line of Guardians of Angel Island and the Master Emerald. He could tap into its power to devastating results.

He charged energy within himself and released it in a frightening burst by slamming his fists into the ground in front of him. The earth cracked under his blow and somewhere between fifteen and twenty robots were destroyed in one fell swoop. Sonic's not the only one who's been practicing.

Julie-Su fired rapidly with twin hand blasters, turning this way and that in order to hit as many robots as she could. Occasionally, one would get too close, and she would be forced to kick it aside, but mostly she shot them before they could get to her. Though they were doing a fairly admirable job of holding their own, Knuckles and Julie-Su both were starting to tire. Between the two of them they had already amassed a fairly healthy supply of bruises and laser burns.

Knuckles launched a Chaos enhanced punch with his right that carried him forward, tearing through three bots and knocking aside five or six more. He continued, using his fists and his feet to tear apart as many foes as he could, silently cursing the Chaotix for taking so damn long.

"Uh oh…" In the heat of battle he hadn't realized that tearing into the robot's ranks had allowed them to surround him. He was about to slam the ground again and send a shockwave in all directions, until a tree collapsed right into the midst of the robot army. At the trunk stood Mighty the Armadillo and the rest of the Chaotix.

"Need some help?" Vector the Crocodile asked slyly. At that Vector, Espio the Chameleon and Charmy Bee all charged at the robots, while Mighty hefted the tree for use as a gargantuan club. Espio turned invisible as he launched an array of shuriken at a contingent of bots, leaping into the air to pounce on another. Vector charged headlong into the fray, bowling over his foes as he went. Charmy used his great airborne speed to trick robots into shooting each other and drawing attention away from his friends.

Knuckles took advantage of the confusion to prep the Chaos Quake (that's what he called it at least) that he had considered using before and shattered a ring of bots around him. Now that the fight was a little more even; things were heating up.

Mighty continued to swing his tree this way and that, bowling robots over with his ferocious strength, and raising it above it his head and crushing groups of them at a time. The robots starting wizening up, however and began to attack the tree itself, slowly breaking it down, until Mighty was left with just a stump, which he raised above his head to crush one more bot. Then he kicked it and bowled over another cluster of them.

Knuckles punched a hole through a bot as he saw another cleaved in two by an invisible blade. Espio continued his impressive assault, skillfully dismembering foes left and right. Mighty crumpled one bot into a super dense ball and used to crush three more with one prodigious throw.

Julie-Su continued picking off targets with her blasters until their power packs ran out. Then she pulled out a weapon that she had recently acquired: a hand-axe that featured an electric current along its blade. This made it sharp enough to cut these bots to shrapnel and, Knuckles had to admit, really cool.

Robotnik had obviously anticipated a high level of resistance, as other types of robots began flooding in. Black flying ones with arm mounted lasers and larger ground based ones (Knuckles spotted one or two E-2000s) came pouring in. They wouldn't be able to last much longer, at least without Knuckles turning on the heat.

He gathered energy, drawing from the Master Emerald itself. He then channeled this energy rapidly out of his body, and small green beams erupted from him flying into the robots in front of him. Twenty, thirty or more had been destroyed. Knuckles turned and repeated the same process, taking out a few dozen more. However, his training had not progressed to the point that he could keep doing this repeatedly. And the robots were still coming.

Suddenly a flash of blue sped past Knuckles' eyes and robots began exploding, crumpling or otherwise failing before him. It was about time.

"Took you long enough, True Blue!" Knuckles yelled to his old friend and rival. "We just about beat Robotnik already, but you can have the scraps."

"Fat chance, Knux!" Sonic jibed back as he destroyed another robot. "You wouldn't even know how to scrap a buzzbomber if it wasn't for me. Isn't that right Mighty?"

"Taught me everything I know!" Mighty joked while literally tearing a robot in two, remembering his and Sonic's time with Ray the Squirrel years ago. "Hey Sonic, how about a fastball?" Sonic ran to the armadillo and jumped in the air.

Mighty caught him and launched at the robots with a loud "Geronimo!!" Sonic flew forward through two bots and deftly homed in one five more before coming to a stop in front of an E-2000. He was just about to attack it when Knuckles tore through its shield, and its body, with one massive blow.

"Wow," Sonic said, genuinely impressed. "That was cool. Real cool!" He gave a thumbs up, and Knuckles smiled.

"We'll trade compliments later," he said. "Right now we've got some bots to crush!" With that he leapt into the air and flew over the field of battle, coming down next to Julie-Su on two such robots with his fists, crushing them.

"Heard anything thing from HQ?" he asked. Julie-Su had cybernetic implants, one of which patched her into the defense force radio. It was a perk of having come from the more technologically oriented sect of Echidna society.

"Yeah," she said, hacking off a bot's head, "they're going to use the Projector and move the city." Knuckles' eyes widened.

"Wait, seriously?" he asked. "After last time?" He was so distracted a bot hit him in the stomach, winding him just a little. Julie-Su repaid the affront by hacking off another head.

"Yep," she replied, "Tails is helping them use it and…." She trailed off for a second, still fighting, but also clearly listening to something else entirely. "They're using it now."

"Um, Red?" Sonic said, appearing at their side. "This, uh, guy who's helping us out mentioned something about using the Master Emerald to shut down the Chaos Drive cores in these robots. He said that you'd know what to do." He gave a quick thumbs up, winked and proceeded to smash more bots. Yeah, Knuckles knew what he was talking about.

"Everybody!" Knuckles said. "I need you to buy me some time! Keep them away from me and the Emerald!" Knuckles climbed atop the altar as his friends gave him the affirmative.

Mighty had taken to brawling with the bots. He was ripping their arms off and clubbing others into spare parts with them and generally just tearing through their ranks.

Espio was deftly eliminating the more troublesome robots such as the airborne ones that had entered partway through the battle. His movements were as nimble as ever, his blade slicing through one bot as a shuriken slit a vital fluid line of another as a foot knocked the head off a third.

Charmy and Vector were working hand in hand. As Vector tore through bot after bot, Charmy would zig and zag around them, confusing their sensors and giving Vector windows of opportunity.

Julie-Su continued to slash and hack her way through waves of robots. As she disabled one with an upward swing she knocked the legs out from under another and hewed a third's head in two.

Sonic, well, he continued to be the fastest thing alive. After spin dashing through a line of four bots he leapt into the air onto a flying one, causing it to fall on another two. He leapt off again and launched a homing attack against two bots before finding himself at the business end of a large, stocky, reddish rust-colored bot with a cannon on its right arm. It reminded him a little of a mix of the large hammer bots that Metal Sonic had employed when he was impersonating Robotnik, only a lot better at what it was meant to do, and a toned down version of the bot that he and Tails had destroyed just a little while ago.

"No plane to crash now rodent!" the bot said with Robtonik's voice. Sonic figured that it was probably another fake, but he was still excited for this fight.

Amid the fighting, the chaos and disorder, Knuckles began to recite an ancient invocation of the power that resides within the Master Emerald. "The Servers are the Seven Chaos…." He needed to concentrate hard to pull this off, or they would be overwhelmed soon.

Sonic dodged a blast from the cannon by juking to the right and nearly got in a solid attack but was rebuffed by an energy shield similar to the one from before. Sonic leapt into the air as another energy blast hit the ground where had stood just a few milliseconds before. He came down on the bot's head with a kick, causing it to stagger a bit. Sonic pressed his advantage and hit it once more with a homing attack. This time, when the bot tried to fire at him, Sonic hit the cannon, damaging it, causing a misfire.

The robot's entire right arm exploded, taking a chunk of its body as well. Sonic was about to press the attack when an indescribable noise erupted from the direction of Echidnapolis and the city disappeared. The ships continued to fire for a split second before they realized that their target was gone. Just then, Knuckles finished his task.

With a cry a wave of green energy erupted outward from the Master Emerald and past the hordes of robots. It then collapsed upon itself back into the giant stone, and the robots were still.


End file.
